Are We Human
by BluePhyre
Summary: Are we human, or are we dancers? My sign is vital, my hands are cold. And I'm on my knees, looking for the answer. Are we human, or are we dancers? Short songfic, slight Fakir/Ahiru and Rue/Mytho.


**Disclaimer: I do not own Princess Tutu or this song, "Human," by The Killers. _I do not!_**

A duck's eyes watched as a prince danced upon the surface of her lake, her heart aching with unrequited love. She would never receive the love she felt; she was only a simple, ugly bird with eyes that seemed just too human.

____

I did my best to notice  
When the call came down the line  
Up to the platform of surrender  
I was brought but I was kind

But then a strange man by the name of Drosselmeyer came to the bird and offered her a chance to help the prince. She could become a human, and then she could make the prince happy by returning his heart to him. Her role came with a curse; she could never tell the prince she loved him, or else she would disappear. But that was good enough for her.

And everyday, the girl smiled, because, although her fate was thrust upon her in such a startling way, she had been given a chance that she had never thought she would get. She had surrendered her fate to a strange, mysterious ghost, but she could make the one she had come to love with all her tiny duck heart happy. And she happily accepted that duty.

____

And sometimes I get nervous  
When I see an open door  
Close your eyes, clear your heart  
Cut the cord

But then she couldn't do anything but return the feelings of pain to her prince, and the girl began to doubt her helpfulness. She was just making it worse. Sometimes, she wished she had never been turned into a girl. The prince wouldn't hurt, and he would fear her.

But for her prince's sake, the girl had to go on, or else the pain would consume him. So she would take a deep breath and continue returning feelings to the prince, assuring herself and that knight of the prince's that it was all for the best.

____

Are we human or are we dancers?  
My sign is vital, my hands are cold  
And I'm on my knees looking for the answer  
Are we human or are we dancers?

And then, to make things worse, the prince began to love the girl. But it was not truly the girl he loved, but the person he thought the girl was, his princess. But really, the princess, the dancer, was a simple girl, and the girl was a duck.

Inside the girl felt dead and confused. Her heart hurt whenever she knew it was the princess the prince smiled at instead of the girl herself. And she was beginning to question exactly what she was. Surely, she could not be a duck… But she wasn't a dancer or a girl. She was nothing.

____

Pay my respects to grace and virtue  
Send my condolences to good  
Give my regards to soul and romance  
They always did the best they could

The girl began to feel different, though, and the prince's heart was captured by ravens and their princess, a different princess who wanted the prince to love only her. The girl knew that this was wrong; the prince was a wonder, kind, _perfect_ person. But with his heart taken over, he was not any of these. He was a horrible person when he was controlled by the ravens, and he broke her heart.

The girl felt that, although the raven princess wasn't the one that had helped the prince, that she deserved the good prince, because she loved him and could express it. The girl could not. She realized that she would never have a happy ending, because she was only a duck.he girl felt that she could no longer rightfully love the prince. And so her heart was bleeding, but it was open. Her devotion to the prince was not the same; she wanted to save him as a friend, because he deserved to be happy and perfect, as he had been before.

And so long to devotion  
You taught me everything I know  
Wave goodbye, wish me well  
You've gotta let me go

And then, the girl began to like the prince's knight, who had stood faithfully beside her in the fight against the ravens for so long. And then, as the knight saved her from another dimension, the girl realized that she had to let go of her feelings for the prince. There was someone else that they belonged to.

__

Are we human or are we dancers?  
My sign is vital, my hands are cold  
And I'm on my knees looking for the answer  
Are we human or are we dancers?

But when she was a dancer, the girl still felt for the prince. She was not the dancer. The dancer had been the one that loved the prince, always. But the girl loved the knight… And she was again confused about what she was.

She knew that she would soon become a duck again, because the story would end. And she knew she was not a girl, nor a dancer. She was still nothing. But this time as nothing, she had someone else who cared for _her_ as she was, not her as a dancer. Someone who loved the girl and the duck and the dancer. Someone who loved all of her.

_Will your system be alright  
When you dream of home tonight?  
There is no message we're receiving  
Let me know, is your heart still beating?_

And then, the knight and the girl and the raven princess worked together and defeated the raven who had possessed the prince's heart. The raven princess and the prince married, and the girl and the knight were left alone as their friends led a happier life.

ut the girl was no longer a girl, because the story had ended. She was a duck, and, even though the knight loved her as a duck, they could never be happy. He grew sadder, until he seemed dead. There was no hope left in him.

The duck wondered if the prince and the raven princess remembered her. She wondered what had happened to the dancer she had turned into, and she wondered if the knight was truly alive. She wondered if his heart worked.

____

Are we human or are we dancers?  
My sign is vital, my hands are cold  
And I'm on my knees looking for the answer

And even then, the duck wondered what she really was. Ducks could not understand what she did. Ducks could not dance like she did. Ducks could not love like she did. But she wasn't a girl, and she wasn't a dancer.

She was still nothing. And once more, she did not have someone to love her.

____

You've gotta let me know  
Are we human or are we dancers?  
My sign is vital, my hands are cold  
And I'm on my knees looking for the answer  
Are we human or are we dancers?

But there was still that sparkle in the knight's eyes. Maybe he did still love her after all… If only she was a human.

_Are we human or are we dancers?_

The duck watched as the knight walked down to her pond as he always did, a roll of parchment in his hand.

"I'm going to write a story for you, Ahiru," the knight said.

_Are we human or are we dancers?_

-

-

-

Eh, yeah. This was a rash decision. I don't really like reading _or_ writing songfics, it just makes no sense to me. But then I realized just how well this song, "Human" by the Killers, fits Princess Tutu and I decided to try it out. Of course, I didn't write it half as well as I imagined it. I can't really expect little of myself, anyway. I was listening to Human on loop for about three hours writing a research paper because absolute silence annoys me, as does my little sister's screaming, but I have to have a song repeating nonstop for me to focus enough to work, or else I just go and sing along to every song that comes up on shuffle and I never get anything done. Sigh. So, yeah. That's pretty much the story behind this. I was too lazy to introduce the characters with their names, so they just retained their original titles. I didn't feel like changing knight to writer and having to explain it, either. And did you like the ending? I thought I would allude to Ahiru being turned back into a human, but I didn't want to write the whole transformation out, becase that's corny, cliche, and overrated. Sorry. And uh... I had to use at least one speaking line, or else it would really annoy me. Review and you get a shiny brass anvil! And if you get that reference, you don't get it via hole in the sky (ouch...).

Ja' ne!

- Neko -


End file.
